1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program to carry out the detection of the objects, primarily the detection of the object images taken by the cameras included therein and the detection of the objects in is the application. The present invention particularly has an advantage to provide the apparatus, the method and the computer program that realize a simple but a precise visual detection of the objects and the object images.
2. Background of the Invention
There is a well-known technology called SNAKES for determining a contour of an object taken in a graphic image. By using this technology, the contour of the object is determined in such a way that the contour model is assumed by using the initial vague counter extracted in the graphic image and then the contour model is specified by shrinking and deforming under a predetermined rule towards the ultimate contour. One of the application of this technology is that edges (that is, a boarder where two adjacent pixels have large changes in the light intensity) of a moving object is detected and the object is detected by determining the contour in association with the contour model linked with the edges (for example, see Page 7 and the FIGS. 9 and 10, Japanese Published Patent, 08-329254, A (1996), which is incorporated herein by reference).
The above edge detection, that is to detect the object by SNAKES, has an advantage in determining the precise contour of the object. However, it requires a lot of computation power for the purpose of creating the edge image and determining the contour modeling.